Exact Change
by Sita-chan
Summary: [slash, blinktrack] Blink heads to the mall with his insane friends and employs his flirting skills, or lack thereof, when he focuses his attention on an attractive Basking Robbins employee


I randomly decided to write this. Please don't ask me why. I was re-reading some of Lutzki's fics, and I felt suddenly inspired. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, yes, most of this really happened. Except it was Twitch doing it and not Blink. Mwaha. Okay! Moving on!

Disclaimers: Sita does not ooooooown anything except Mayfly and her spiffy new senior ring! -brandishes said ring- Colleeny-bean owns Zodiac, Twitch owns himself, and Disney owns the boys that we all know and love.

Warnings: None

Exact Change

I raised an eyebrow as I plopped down into the booth with my chicken and fries, courtesy of Popeye's. "What, exactly, is _that_?" I asked, pointing to the identical... _things_ on Zodiac and Mayfly's plates.

"Duh. It's a calzone," Zodiac replied, chomping on her _thing_ as Mayfly hungrily eyed a rather good-looking guy who happened to be walking past.

"That looks so incredibly nasty."

"Hey, this is _Italian_. It's not _allowed_ to be nasty!" Mayfly yelled, jabbing her finger in my face. I shrugged and nibbled on a fry. "You know, Blink, you'll have to try new food eventually. Not every restaurant you go to will have chicken."

I stuck my tongue out at her. "Most of them will."

"But, seriously, Blink, you only eat chicken, grilled cheese sandwiches, and root beer floats."

"And what, praytell, is wrong with that?"

"... it's _weird_. Look, I'm not saying you have to be Mr. International Food Guy like Twitch-"

"Speaking of Twitch, where _is_ he?"

"In that stupid girly accessory shop, The Icing," Zodiac muttered, rolling her eyes. "He got distracted by the pink, shiny things."

I grinned, shook my head, and took a bite out of my chicken leg.

For some reason, everything seems to taste better on a Friday night. I don't know why. Maybe simply because you _know_ it's a Friday and you _know_ that you don't have to worry about school. But everything is just better on a Friday. Especially since the four principals of the cast of _Annie Get Your Gun _(namely, Twitch, Mayfly, Zodiac, and me) had formed an informal tradition that consisted of going _somewhere_, rain or shine, just the four of us, after rehearsal every Friday. And I absolutely adored these kids, so, naturally, all Fridays were awesome for me.

This particular Friday, Twitch had chosen The Riverwalk, the most overpriced, touristy mall in New Orleans. But, hey, we humored him. Most of us hadn't been to the Riverwalk since we were kids. I know I hadn't.

Speak of the devil...

Twitch cheerily plopped down into the booth next to Mayfly, along with his own plate of... _stuff_. Ugh. His food looked even nastier than those calzone things.

"Okay, that's just icky," Mayfly stated bluntly, carefully poking at Twitch's food with her straw wrapper.

"It's a gyro!" Twitch pouted.

"A whatso?"

"It's _Greek_."

"Your _mom_ is Greek."

"Your _face_ is Greek."

"Your _mom's face_ is Greek."

I threw a french fry at Zodiac before the conversation could continue.

"Dude, I want _ice cream_ really bad," Mayfly muttered.

"Ooh, ooh, me, too!" Zodiac yelled.

"Wait for me to finish eatiiiiing!" Twitch whined. I laughed.

"We had to wait for you to finish raping The Icing and get your weird-looking Albanian food-"

"It's _Greek_!"

"YOUR MOM IS GREEK!"

"SHUT UP!"

We all burst into hysterical laughter. I had to dodge Mayfly's fists; she tends to hit things when she laughs.

"But, seriously, we'll wait for a bit, Twitch."

"Yeah, I've got to pee, anyway," I added.

Zodiac beamed. "Thanks for the info, Blink."

"Any time." Still chuckling, I hopped to my feet and headed for the bathroom, grinning as Zodiac promptly plucked a pepperoni from her calzone and hummed it at Twitch's forehead.

Did I mention the fact that I love these kids?

As I strode across the crowded mall, ducking in between crowds of tourist families donning Mardi Gras beads despite the fact that it was July, I happened to glance over at the Baskin Robbins to check the price on their root beer float.

I instead found myself staring at the guy standing behind the counter.

I'm not like most people. Most people look at someone and automatically think, "oh, he's cute!" I'm not like that. Mostly because I don't put much value in the way a person looks, because, after all it's not like it's something that they can control. So, I have to get to know somebody before I think they're cute.

But, for some reason unbeknownst to me, I found this Baskin Robbins guy _cute_. In the literal sense of the world. As in, he was attractive to me. Holy crap, it's the apocalypse.

Anyone else would have looked at him, then looked back at me with some kind of weird, confused look on their face or say something like, "... _that_ guy? Are you _sure_?" Because, you know, he wasn't cute to the point where normal people would give him a second glance. He was kind of short - okay, really short - and just... I don't know. Not stereotypically cute, really. I don't know what drew me to him in the first place. It must have been his smile. He had this absolutely contagious, smirky, little grin that he'd flash at some of the customers.

About five minutes passed that consisted of me doing nothing but standing around and staring blankly at this guy as he sauntered around, making ice cream and goofing off with his co-workers. The line slowly dwindled until pretty much everyone that wanted icre cream had it. The guy grinned at the girl he was working with, then leaned forward to rest on the countertop. And I kept staring like an idiot, because I'm stalker-ish that way.

Then he looked up. And he looked _right at me_.

So, of course, I proceeded to freeze and continued to stare.

The guy raised an eyebrow, and I was totally sure that he was gonna call for security. "Security, I think there's a one-eyed freak stalking me." He probably had a little speaker or something installed in his watch just for times like this. Like the CIA. Or the Mafia. The guy looked like he could be in the Mafia.

But that didn't happen. He just flashed me his aforementioned smirky little grin and waved a little bit.

So, naturally, me being me, I blushed like a fifteen-year-old girl, shot him a nervous smile, and immediately tore off in the other direction.

"Dude, what's the matter?" Mayfly demanded as I dashed back to our booth.

"Erm... pretty boy."

Zodiac's jaw dropped, Mayfly choked on her Coke, and Twitch somehow managed to trip over himself while sitting down and fell out of the booth.

"_You_ think a guy is _cute_?!"

"... yes."

"Who, who, _who_?!" Zodiac inquired.

I sighed and pointed over at Baskin Robbins. Zodiac, being as short as she was, stood on the seat and craned her neck over the crowd.

"The Italian guy?"

"Yeah."

"Holy shit, he's sex on a stick!" she squealed, clapping her hands.

"So go talk to him!" Twitch cried, plopping back into his seat.

"But... I... but..." I stammered.

"ENGAGE IN CONVERSATION THE BOY OF CUTENESS!" Mayfly howled, pushing me out of the booth.

"Jesus Christ, okay, okay!" Grumbling under my breath, I reluctantly headed back towards Baskin Robbins, praying that my usual stupidity and awkwardness would take a vacation or something. Maybe, for once, I wouldn't look like a total moron and completely embarrass myself.

Hey, a guy can dream.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly like I was taught in a totally moronic meditation class at a theater convention a few years ago. Then, trying to look cool and casual, I strolled up to the counter.

The guy glanced up at me, then did a double-take and grinned broadly.

"Hey, there!" he said. "Thought I scared you away earlier."

I laughed and shook my head. "No, I was just being weird. Sorry about that."

"Don't apologize for being weird. Weird people are cool. Normal people suck. It's one of life's great lessons."

I laughed again, and this time, he laughed with me. I liked the way his laugh sounded. Have you ever met someone who tries to force out their laugh or make it sound a certain way? I hate that. Everybody laughs differently, just like everybody looks and thinks and feels differently. Thankfully, he wasn't one of those people; he just let his laugh flow.

"Anyway. What can I get for you?"

I froze temporarily. I'd sort of forgotten that when you stand at the register of an establishment that sells food, it usually means you want to buy something, not that you want to attempt to flirt with the guy behind the counter.

But, luckily, my usual order popped out of my mouth. Hooray for muscle memory.

"Could I get a root beer float?"

"Ooh, we don't have root beer..." He frowned, then brightened. "But I could make you a Coke float! Is that okay?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I've never had a Coke float, but, sure, why not?"

"You've never had a Coke float?! Oh, man, I love these things. My Coke floats are like Jesus. You won't be disappointed." I laughed to myself as he headed off to make my float.

"Psst! Blink! _Blink_!"

"Oh, for God's sake, Twitch, this isn't some big undercover operation or something. You don't have to whisper."

"Guys, what are you doing?"

Twitch, Mayfly, and Zodiac grinned at me from behind a massive potted plant.

"We're spying on you and your flirt-age," Mayfly replied nonchalantly. Zodiac whacked her on the arm.

"Dude, shut up, he's coming back!" They ducked back down behind the plant, which was completely useless, since it was kind of impossible _not_ to see three teenagers crouched behind a plant that was only about two feet tall.

The guy raised an eyebrow as he placed my float on the counter. "Who are the freaks hiding behind the plant?"

"Oh, those are my friends. They've got issues."

"Ah. I know the feeling."

We grinned at each other as he rang up my total.

"Okay, it's gonna be five-ten."

I quickly searched through my wallet, then frowned. "Ugh, I don't have change."

He let out an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, fine, make it difficult for me."

"Hang on, let me look some more."

"Oh, I'm kidding, don't worry about it." He laughed as he punched it into the register.

Triumphantly, I held up a coin. "I lied! I _do_ have change!"

"Let's throw a party!"

"Woohoo!"

At this point, I pretty much had no clue what I was doing. This had never happened to me before. I mean, once I get to know someone, I'm wild and crazy and goofy. But with people I don't know all that well, I'm actually pretty shy. For some reason, though, I totally forgot that I didn't know this guy, that I didn't even know what his name was. I really did feel like I knew him.

I snapped out of my little inner monologue when I took a closer look at the coin in my hand.

"Did you already change what I gave you on the register?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I lied again. I thought this was a dime, but it's a nickel, so I don't have change."

"You're killing me here!" he said, laughing, as he, once again, changed the amount.

Sheepishly, I handed him my six dollars.

Still grinning, he gave me my change. "There. Now you _do_ have change."

I flashed him another timid smile as our fingers brushed.

I was about to take my float and leave, since I couldn't think of anything else to say or do, when I noticed the tip jar sitting next to the register. With a half-smile, I dumped my ninety cents into the tip jar and grinned at the guy. Hey, he was nice and cute and dealt with my stupidity, so he deserved a tip.

But, to my surprise, he didn't smile back. He just gave me a really weird, confused look.

I was about to ask him what was wrong, but he answered my question before I could ask it.

"Um, dude, you just put your change in the trash can."

A mad burst of hysterical laughter exploded from the potted plant, and I numbly glanced down at the little purple container. Sure enough, in huge, black, _massive_ letters sat the words "TRASH ONLY."

Needless to say, I was mortified.

"Oh, my God, could I please bang my head against this counter?" I groaned as I lowered my face into my hands.

His smile was back, and he was even laughing a bit. Which was a good sign, even though it _was_ at my expense. "Aw, don't do that. We wouldn't want you to break the counter."

"I swear to God, I thought that was the tip jar."

When I tell you that he literally fell over, I'm not exaggerating. He laughed so hard that I guess he tripped on something and fell backwards. Of course, I couldn't help but laugh myself, so I let my embarassment fade away as we continued to laugh together.

He managed to pull himself back up to the counter, wiping away tears, his laughter finally subsiding. "What's your name?" he asked finally, when he could speak again.

"I'm Isaac. People call me Blink. How about you?"

"Dean, better known as Racetrack." He grinned and leaned forward so he didn't have to speak as loud. "Listen, this is pretty much a formality, since my gaydar is basically foolproof, but you _are_ gay, right?"

I laughed quietly and nodded.

"Good. So, then, if you're not busy, would you maybe like to-"

"Yes."

Racetrack grinned. "I get off at eight. Want to meet me back here and decide what to do?"

"Sounds great."

"See you then." He handed me my float, and our hands brushed together for the second time that night. Still smiling calmly, he casually trailed his fingers across my hand as he placed his arms back on the counter. Normally, I would have written it off as an accident, though, somehow, I figured that it wasn't.

I gave him one, last, slightly embarrassed smile before heading off towards the plant with my float.

"So. Now that Blink is done making himself look like an idiot..." Mayfly said cheerily.

"Well, at least I got a date out of it," I replied casually as I headed towards the Mardi Gras store.

My friends exploded behind me, just like I knew they would.

"You got a _what_?!"

"SO NOT FAIR!"

"I want a daaaaaate!"

"You're ditching us for him!"

"No love!"  
"I've got a wedgie."

I tuned them out after a while. What did I care? I had a date with a boy. A _cute_ boy.

And, dammit, that Coke float was one of the best things I'd ever tasted.

END

Random and cute. I wanted a Blinktrack one-shot, so this came out! This is dedicated to **Twitch**, who actually threw away his change while flirting with a cute guy at Baskin Robbins and, therefore, inspired this fic. LOVE! And INSANE love to anyone who reviews! -beams and waves-


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